Ottone Rosai –Worker on the cross

Sorry about the slanted view,
I was in a hurry whilst taking this.

This is a phenomenal painting that is on display in the modern art section of the Vatican museum. I had a tremendous privilege to see it in march this year as well. Unfortunately, I did not have much time to see the painting since my college group had a tight schedule but I still managed to take a pic.

Although I saw the painting for only just a few short seconds, it had become one of the highlights of my trip. At the time when I saw it I thought it to be very powerful. One of the reasons was because it had a modern man in a suit. To me this meant that we are all called to die on the cross, we are all called to be sacrificial in our love. The picture is so deep that there are still aspects of it that I think would be truly significant to the whole meaning, yet I simply just tend to savour the moment and ponder on its features only from time to time.

After some months, I have found the author if this painting and the long Italian phrase that this painting was called, meaning simply: ‘the worker on the cross’. Whilst looking at the context of the painting, painted in the 60s at the time of Italian workers strikes and the movement for women equality, an excerpt of Francis Chan’s message came back to my memory. What Francis basically said was why do we fight so much for our rights and demand this and that so we could better ourselves, where as Christ, turned the other cheek, allowed himself to be vulnerable, by being naked on the cross, and standing before the council, by dying for our sins. We need to be more Christ-like, and this is something that I myself as well as others have to work on, we like the worker on the cross should die to ourselves, stop fighting the authorities but instead listen to Paul’s advice and honour our authorities, even when it seems hard. No body is perfect and we all mess up so remember that the grace of God covers us.